Engineering TB-Resistant Cows

In the first successful creation of transgenic cattle using the genome-editing tool transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN), researchers inserted a mouse nuclear body protein gene, SP110, into the genome of cow cells. The gene was chosen for its known role in innate immunity to M. tuberculosis, where it controls the growth of the bacterium in mammalian immune cells and triggers infected cells to undergo programmed cell death.